layman's terms
by ToxiNeena
Summary: If she didn't know any better, she'd bet that her cat was encouraging her to take this chance. After all, it wasn't every day that a hot, hot fireman asked her on a date after putting out her fire at two AM. /fire-fighter AU/
1. point of origin

_As an apology for being so inactive lately, have this fireman!AU! This was just so much fun to write…perhaps I should consider expanding it and making it a multi-chapter? ｡◕‿◕｡_

 _Also, I have **created a joint account** with the wonderful snogfairy and mslead! We have created an **AU collab fic starring ex-arsonist Natsu and detective Lucy called Trial by Fire,** and you can find the link to it **on my profile page**. We've had a lot of fun writing it, and it's turned out awesome, so be sure to check it out and leave us some reviews. We **LOVE** hearing what you have to say._

 _That being said, happy reading!_

* * *

 **Warnings:** _fluff, natsu dorkneel, lucy dorkneel, general humor, AU_

* * *

 **layman's terms**

 _If she didn't know any better, she'd bet that her cat was encouraging her to take this chance. After all, it wasn't every day that a hot, hot fireman asked her on a date after putting out her fire at two AM._

* * *

 _point of origin_

* * *

The thick, black smoke hung low in the air, smothering her and the other tenants as they stood outside the apartment complex. It filled her lungs, making her cough and hack as she watched more smoke billow out from the various windows and reach for the sky with inky fingers.

"My word," whispered her neighbor, standing there in her nightgown with her hair rollers and half-completed facial. "Who on earth is incompetent enough to set the complex on fire? And in the middle of the night, no less…"

She did her best not to flinch. Instead, she shuffled quietly away and covered her face with her hand, doing her best to not look guilty. Because it appeared as though _she_ was incompetent enough, much to her neighbor's chagrin.

She, Lucy Heartfilia, the tenant of apartment 2B, was incompetent enough to set fire to the complex in mid-July at two in the morning. By burning _popcorn_ no less.

Tucking errant strands of blonde hair behind her hair, Lucy folded her arms and watched the firemen swarm the complex with a sense of embarrassment.

"The fire isn't even that bad," she muttered aloud, more to comfort herself than anything.

She hoped that it just looked worse than it really was—otherwise she would be paying more money than she had to repair the damages. The smoke was thick as it crawled along the outside of the building, leaving sooty stains in its wake.

Lucy covered her face again with a little sigh.

"Lucy Heartfilia?"

The husky voice, so close and unexpected, made the blonde jerk before wheeling around with a frown. That frown slipped as she spied the stranger standing next to her—well, not really a stranger, she noted as her eyes perused his form. His heavy black suit with neon yellow reflective strips around his waist, hips, arms, and legs, and his bulky helmet—complete with oxygen mask—clearly identified him as a fireman.

A fireman who had been called out to clean up her mistake.

Suddenly, Lucy felt ashamed. "Um, yes, that's me…" she murmured in answer to his question.

"Great!"

And she was immediately taken aback by the cheery note to his voice. She didn't think a fireman would be so cheerful after being called out to a fire at two AM because of someone else's incompetence.

Reaching up, the fireman began unfastening his hat. "I just wanted to talk to you about your apartment and stuff."

"What kind of…" Lucy began, and then fell silent when he took off his hat, revealing a mop of unruly, damp, _pink_ hair.

The fireman streaked his gloved hand through the tangled mess of his sweaty hair, leaving behind black tracks of soot. Then he shook his head, flinging stray drops of sweat every which way, before fixing her with a grin.

And Lucy swore time began to slow.

"…stuff…" she finished lamely.

Holy… _whoa._

Being a journalist, she'd interviewed many an attractive man but none had been able to stop her dead in her tracks with just their looks alone. She'd prided herself on that. But it looked as though she wouldn't be able to do that any longer…because this fireman had just shut her down with nothing but a silly grin and a cock of his gorgeous head.

Though he was covered in a heavy, fire-retardant suit, his neck and face revealed that his skin was a beautiful shade of bronze. But not just any bronze; it was bronze mixed with honey, the kind of shade only achieved through exotic roots combined with hours of sun exposure.

That beautiful skin was stretched over high cheekbones and a strong chin, which led to wide lips that looked cracked despite the sheen of moisture covering every inch of his exposed skin.

But the real grabber was his eyes.

A green so pure and yet smoldering that Lucy couldn't help but gape wordlessly. Dark, burning green fringed with lashes so thick that it should have been illegal. And his hair was _pink_. She couldn't tell if it was natural or not, but it certainly had an interesting effect.

He was…well, not beautiful—she wouldn't say he was beautiful, he was too masculine for that. But, dear god, he sure as hell was _something_.

And all of the sudden, Lucy felt much too self-conscious for her liking as she stood there in her cotton, bunny-printed pajamas and fuzzy slippers.

"Hey, uh, you okay there?" The fireman, looking alarmed at her long bout of stunned silence, cocked his head to the side with a concerned frown. His gloved hand landed on her shoulder as he leaned down to peer into her eyes. "The smoke getting to you or something?"

"What?" Lucy shook her head, swallowing. "Oh, no, I'm fine…" she insisted as she took a little step back.

He smelled like smoke and ash and hot summer nights.

"Well, that's good," the fireman began with a nod, and then fixed her with a little frown. "Your apartment, though, is a little worse for wear. You've got some smoke damage to the inside and your kitchen is a little charred since that's where the original point of ignition was, but other than that it looks okay," he told her as he gestured to her apartment building.

Lucy heaved a sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose. "The damages are going to cost me a fortune…"

Her pink-haired fireman sent her a sympathetic look. "Well, if you have insurance, it shouldn't be too bad, right?" he said with a small, reassuring smile. Looking back to her apartment, he asked, "Anything of great value in there that you're worried about?"

Great value? Well, she wouldn't really say that anything in her apartment was of great value. Journalists didn't exactly make enough money to afford anything of great value, she thought with a little roll of her eyes.

And on top of that, any spare money that she did have usually went towards looking after her mischievous Happy, who somehow always managed to get into trouble. Sometimes she thought he was more trouble than he was worth; but she would never dream of giving him away.

Speaking of that damn cat, she thought then as she glanced around, she hadn't seen him for at least an hour.

He'd been sitting on the couch when she saw him last.

And then Lucy's heart nearly stopped in her chest. "Oh, my god," she whispered suddenly, drawing the attention of fireman next to her. "My cat! I forgot about my damn cat!" Lucy exclaimed as she slapped her hand down onto the thick sleeve of his uniform and tugged.

"You're kidding me," he deadpanned. "The old _cat trapped in a burning building_ cliché?" The fireman breathed out his laughter with exasperation.

"No," Lucy insisted, wringing her hands in the grainy material of his suit and he fell silent. "I'm being serious! My cat is still in my apartment!"

Her pink-haired fireman sobered up quickly, the cheeky grin replaced by hard professionalism. "Okay, you just wait right here," he said as he unstrapped the radio from his chest and began fastening his hat again. As he stalked back to the smoldering apartment complex, Lucy heard him mumble into the device, "Yo, Scrap-for-brains, we gotta run extrication on apartment 2B. Over."

She also heard the vague, static-filled reply of, _"What, the lady forget her damn cat or somethin'? Over."_

Lucy, had she not been so suddenly anxious, probably would have flushed with embarrassment. But as it was, she was far too upset with herself to feel embarrassed.

She couldn't believe she'd forgotten Happy.

Sure, he was an annoying little furball sometimes, but he was her cat and she loved him.

"You see, Lucy?" she told herself sardonically. "This is why you can't have nice things."

Because this was what happened when she had nice things. She set them on fire and then left her damn cat in the burning building. After this, she decided, she was going to glue that cat to her side.

If her father got wind of this…

Lucy shuddered and scowled.

No doubt her father would hear about the fire, and she would definitely get an earful about how she _"wasn't ready to be out on her own"_ and how she should _"just go back home where she belonged"_. But if he learned that she accidentally left her cat behind in her burning apartment, he would use that to guilt her into moving back into his house.

And that, Lucy decided, was not going to happen.

"Can't they hurry this up?" whined Lucy's neighbor, Ms. Habbot, a few feet away as she fiddled with the rollers in her hair. The older woman tucked the edges of her robe tighter around herself despite the muggy atmosphere and folded her arms with a pout. "I'm missing my beauty sleep because of this ridiculous mess…"

Lucy's other neighbors joined in the grumbling, and honestly, she didn't blame them. Had she been in their positions, she would have been annoyed too.

Two in the morning and they were all standing outside the apartment complex while it slowly simmered down and the smoke choked them all. Most everyone had been awoken by the horrendous cacophony that was the fire alarm; and to be woken out of a dead sleep by something like that left scars on the soul.

To think this had all started because she'd forgotten about the popcorn on her stove-top.

Lucy sighed again, knowing it would be a long time before she attempted to make popcorn again.

It was mere moments after that thought that she saw the fireman reemerge from the smoking complex, a bundle in his arms. Said bundle was squirming and the poor fireman was having a hard time containing the terrified ball of pure energy as it tried to claw its way up his suit. And as he approached, she could hear the telltale yowling that was her cat.

Relieved, Lucy met the fireman halfway, jogging to him in her bunny-patterned pajamas and fuzzy slippers. "Oh, my god. You found him," she murmured incredulously when she came to a stop just in front of him, reaching for Happy.

The fireman unhooked the cat's claws from his suit and handed the obviously disgruntled thing over with what sounded like a chuckle, the sound warped by his oxygen mask. "Yeah, found him hiding out in the bathroom," he mused as he began to disassemble his helmet again. "And at first I thought the smoke was playing ticks on me," he said as he removed the bulky protection and shook his head with a grin, "but it looks like your cat really is blue under all that soot."

Lucy felt the laughter build in her chest as Happy settled in her arms, meowing his heart out.

Now that he was in familiar hands, the previously hellish cat settled with a certain amount of contentedness. The fireman noticed and snorted at the feline with amusement.

"He got outside last week and rolled in an open container of powdered hair dye at the garage a few blocks down…" she explained, looking down at her blue-tinted cat covered in black streaks and now purring happily. "I tried washing it off, but it looks like he's gonna be blue for a while."

But, hey, blue was better than dead.

"Huh, no kidding." The fireman shook his damp head again and reached up to ruffle his pink hair, revealing a single piercing on his left ear.

Lucy felt herself swallow.

Dear god, why was he so ridiculously attractive?

Clearing her throat and her thoughts, she shifted the cat in her arms and pinned the firefighter with a serious look. "You're a life saver," she told him. "I don't know how to thank you for this…"

He only shrugged, rolling his broad shoulders, and said with all the nonchalance in the world, "Go on a date with me and we'll call it good."

For the second time in an hour, Lucy felt time begin to slow as she gaped at the fireman, stunned.

A date? He was asking her on a _date?_

She took a step back, blinking at him as his eyes rounded—almost like he was shocked at his own behavior—and then looking down at herself. The fireman she'd basically summoned to her apartment complex at two in the morning and made to fetch her cat was asking her on a date while she was in her bunny pajamas and fuzzy slippers and holding a blue cat covered in soot.

Lucy honestly couldn't decide if this was a joke or not.

Taking her silence negatively, the fireman gave a nervous chuckle and rubbed the back of his sweaty neck. The smile he showed her was sheepish. "Hey, don't worry 'bout it. It's all good if you don't wanna go, just figured I'd ask," he mumbled.

And it was only then that she spotted the rosy hue that dusted his cheekbones. It was hard to spot underneath the sweat, grime, and tan skin, but it was definitely there.

He was serious, Lucy realized as she glanced down at Happy, who _mrowed_ up at her.

If she didn't know any better, she'd bet that her cat was encouraging her to take this chance. After all, it wasn't every day that a hot, hot fireman asked her on a date after putting out her fire at two AM.

She'd decided to be a risk-taker and to live her own life the moment she'd left home. It was about time she started acting like it.

Steeling her nerves, Lucy met those startling green eyes and said, "You got yourself a deal."

"Wait, what?" He reeled back, his square jaw going slack. For a moment, his mouth moved soundlessly and his eyes narrowed in confusion. "I can't believe that actually worked," he laughed eventually, eyes lighting up in childish glee.

Lucy lifted a single shoulder. "I need something good to counteract all this bad mojo," she sighed as she gestured to her apartment where the smoke was, thankfully, beginning to dwindle.

Her neighbors, however, were still grouchy as ever.

Beside her, a wide grin on his face, the fireman nodded enthusiastically and jammed a thumb into his chest. "Yeah, well, you're in luck because I'm a pretty good time."

"Oh, are you?" Lucy laughed, one of her brows lifting.

"Cross my heart," he said as he dragged a gloved finger across his breast in an X. "You wanna pick the time and place?"

"There's this little pizza place on Lemon Grove…" Turning, she waved her hand in the general direction of the shop.

It was small, but the pizza was to die for—and it didn't hurt that the owner tended to give her a reduced price. For the wrong reasons, of course, but a reduced price was a reduced price.

" _Fortunato's_? Yeah, I know the place," the fireman assured, nodding. "Awesome pizza."

Lucy felt her own grin spreading. "Yeah… Does six sound good to you?"

"Sounds perfect."

 _"Hey, Lame-flame, getcher ass to OIC. Over,"_ came a crackling and irate voice, making Lucy jump.

The fireman, his pink brows punching down as a scowl overtook his features, sighed before snatching at the radio strapped to his chest. "Be there in five. Over." The radio crackled once more before going silent, and he shook his head. "Sorry 'bout that, gotta report back to the officer in charge. Gajeel's got sucky timing as always…"

"No, no." Lucy shook her head, disheveled blonde hair flying. This fairy tale of hers had to end sometime, she supposed. "I'll see you Thursday at six, then?"

"Definitely," he promised, taking a step back. With another grin and a chuckle, he turned and headed back for her apartment and towards the gathering of heavily-suited men there. "Oh," he exclaimed, turning on his heel. He flashed her a smile over his shoulder. "The name's Natsu, by the way."

 _Natsu._

Very…fitting for a fireman, she thought and couldn't help but smile.

"I'm Lucy," she said back, Happy still purring in her arms.

"Lucy, huh?" A slow grin spread across his tanned face and his white teeth flashed. "I think that's my new favorite name."

 _…_

 _"Oh, my god, Happy. What was I thinking?"_

 ** _Mrow._**

 _"…Yeah, you're right. He_ _ **is**_ _pretty hot."_

* * *

Phew! Hope you liked this! If it gets a good response I might expand on it and put up another chapter or two.

Thanks for reading and be sure to leave your thoughts!

And again, be sure to check out **Trial by Fire** (the link is on my **profile page** ). I think you guys will really enjoy it (if I do say so myself) and your thoughts and comments are always appreciated and they're so motivating. Thanks again!


	2. back burn

_Thanks for the positive responses in such a short amount of time, guys! As a treat, he's a second chapter!_

 _And again, if you haven't already, check out **Trial by Fire** on my joint account with Snogfairy and Mslead. **You can find the link on my profile!** We'd really appreciate hearing your thoughts._

 _Happy reading!_

* * *

 **layman's terms**

 _If she didn't know any better, she'd bet that her cat was encouraging her to take this chance. After all, it wasn't every day that a hot, hot fireman asked her on a date after putting out her fire at two AM._

* * *

 _back burn_

* * *

Lucy looked at herself one more time in the mirror, tugging down the hem of her short peach-colored skirt, before heaving a loud sigh. "What on earth am I thinking?" she asked aloud, frowning at her reflection.

It wasn't that she didn't look cute.

Because she did look cute if she did say so herself—a knit white top tucked into a peach skirt with nude flats and a matching purse slung over her shoulder. She'd even done her hair, curled it and twisted half of it up into a sweet summer look, and put in earrings.

And it wasn't that she feared she was over-dressed.

It was a casual but still fancy and pretty look that she could manage to afford. She could afford to eat at a pizzeria in an outfit like this.

No, neither of those things were the source of her anxiety. The root of it all was because she was going on this date in the first place, she knew. This kind of behavior, acting on gut instinct alone, wasn't like her at all.

She liked to look at things logically. And there was nothing logical about this date, really.

An echoing sigh met her ears from behind her. "Well, you said you wanted to be a risk-taker," said Lucy's best friend from her cushy bed. Levy, her blue hair bouncing around her face in a sweet pixie-look, fixed Lucy with a knowing grin that she spied in the mirror. "This is your chance, Lu."

"I don't know, Levy…" Lucy bit her bottom lip. "I mean, at two AM it seemed like a good idea… But the thing about spontaneous ideas at two in the morning is that, usually, they're terrible," she reasoned as she spun on her heel, fixing Levy with a concerned look.

Her friend frowned as she sat up a little straighter. "Did he give you a bad vibe or something?"

"Well…no," admitted Lucy. She sighed and crossed her arms. "The opposite, really. Just one look at him and _bam_ , instant chemistry."

Instant, _smoldering_ chemistry.

Even now, Lucy couldn't tell if the muggy atmosphere between them had simply been the weather or something…else.

"Oh?" One of Levy's blue brows lifted and her lips curved upward in a smile. "Do tell me about this…chemistry you have with your mysterious fireman."

"Oh, don't say it like that, Levy!" Lucy gasped with wide eyes, a half-laugh escaping her. "He was just… I don't know. He was like something out of a dream—sweet, funny, nice to talk to, and it didn't hurt that he was easy on the eyes."

Well, he was more than easy on the eyes, Lucy thought as a flush crept up the back of her neck.

"Easy on the eyes, huh?" Levy's eyes narrowed and her smile turned into an outright knowing grin. "From the look on your face, he was a lot more than that. He was totally hot, wasn't he?" she mused in a perfect echo of Lucy's thoughts just moments prior.

Lucy, standing with her back to the mirror, crossed her arms and went to correct Levy. But, her mouth hung open and she slowly looked down at her shoes, gulping—because she couldn't exactly _lie_.

He had been hot.

Oh, so _very_ hot.

But, she supposed that it was only fitting for a fire fighter. He was about as hot as the flames he danced through.

Levy's shocked gasp drew Lucy's attention. "Geez," the tiny woman mumbled, "he's that hot? So hot that he's left you, Lucy Heartfilia, destroyer of men, _speechless?_ "

"Destroyer of men?" Lucy snorted incredulously. "Please, Levy. But yes, he is exactly that hot…"

Her brain stopped working around him and she went from a professional and mature reporter to a gooey, anxious mess.

Considering that that had _never_ happened to her before, Lucy supposed she had good reason to be nervous.

"Lu," Levy huffed out, rolling her golden eyes, "don't tell me you don't see the look in men's eyes as you walk past them—they'd beg to have you step all over them and then cry tears of happiness afterwards. You're a natural heartbreaker, you don't even have to try." The petite woman folded her arms with a smug smile and said, "I hope your mysterious fire fighter knows what he's getting into…"

Understatement of the year, Lucy thought.

Not that she thought that this little date of theirs would lead to anything serious, but if it did, he would have to be comfortable with the amount of… _baggage_ she came with, as some of her previous boyfriends had so kindly put it.

"That makes two of us…" she murmured as she glanced over her shoulder at her reflection.

She was cute—she _knew_ she was cute—but for some reason, she kept doubting that. A part of her worried that maybe she should change her top or her flats. Or maybe do something different with her hair? But that would probably look too weird and—

"So, what's his name?"

Lucy blinked, looking back at her friend and roommate for the time being. "Whose name?" she asked.

"Don't play dumb, Lu," snorted Levy, a coy look on her face. Her gold eyes glittered, a familiar gleam lighting their depths; her thirst for information was almost palpable. "Your fireman, what's his name?"

Right.

Her date. The whole reason she was dressed up like this in the first place.

"Oh… Natsu," Lucy said, lifting one shoulder in a shrug.

"…Well," Levy murmured after a moment, blinking, "that's charmingly fitting."

Lucy couldn't help the laugh that bubbled out of her mouth, because the name really did suit him.

"Isn't it? And he's got this…this wild pink hair," she giggled, waving her hand all about her head.

Sitting on her bed, Levy joined in with laughter of her own. She grabbed a pillow and dragged it into her lap, running her slim fingers through her bouncy, crazy hair.

"Pink?" she echoed, amused. "Natural, or artificial?"

"Oh, come on," Lucy turned around, giving Levy her back so that she could look at herself in the full-length mirror again, "there's no way it could be natural. No one is born with natural hair that vivid a color," she scoffed.

When her best friend didn't respond right away, Lucy glanced up and met Levy's amused stare in the mirror as she gestured to her own very vivid, very natural, and very _blue_ hair.

"…Except for the odd few like you," Lucy amended.

Levy rolled her eyes again, but smiled nonetheless as she reached over and stroked her hand down Happy's back. The cat released a purring meow and leaned into Levy's touch.

"Huh, so you've got a pink-haired fire man wrapped around your finger. I'm proud of you, Lu," she snickered, only half-teasing going by the mischievous glint in her eyes. "Now stop fussing and get going already—you can't be late for your date." Levy glanced pointedly at the clock on the bedside table, blaring 5:40.

Lucy had just enough time to arrive punctually.

"Yeah, you're right." The blonde breathed out heavily, peering at herself one last time in the mirror—too late to change her wardrobe. "Here I go. Bye, Levy, Happy," she announced, waving at the both of them as she left the bedroom and headed for the front door.

She could only pray that the date would go as well as she hoped.

…

At first when she stepped into _Fortunato's_ , she couldn't spot him. She was ten minutes late—not by accident, as she'd stood outside the door for ten minutes simply to see if he would lose his patience waiting for her and leave. Patience was a good quality to have, after all. But, as she scanned the small restaurant, it seemed as though he hadn't even showed up.

Disappointment settled heavily in her chest as her teeth bit into her bottom lip.

She shouldn't have gotten herself so excited over this date; he'd probably forgotten all about it and now she looked like an idiot, standing just inside the doors with wide eyes.

Swallowing, just about to turn on her heel and head home, she saw a hand shoot up into the air out of the corner of her eye. It was followed quickly by a shout of, "Lucy, over here!"

Brown eyes snapped to the left, immediately spying a waving, grinning…man. Blinking, it took her a moment to realize that she was looking at Natsu, her two AM fire fighter, as he looked indescribably different without his flame retardant suit and bulky helmet to match.

But…he still looked good. Better than good.

His pink hair was disheveled, as though he'd run his fingers through it too many times, and his tan skin glowed bronze in the dim lighting of the pizzeria. The dark t-shirt he wore was practically painted over his chest, outlining the ridges of his very defined abdomen and rounded biceps, and his thighs were encased in faded blue jeans.

She hadn't even recognized him in his civilian clothes, but seeing the familiar grin on his face as he waved at her, her heart fluttered. That grin, the glint in his green eyes…they were both things she recognized.

 _Natsu._

Waving back, Lucy weaved through the tables and scatterings of people to the red booth where he was seated. She lowered herself into the cushioned seat opposite of him, her throat tight with foreign anxiety, and when he flashed another grin at her, all she could do was mumble a lame, "Hi."

"Hi yourself," he said back, sounding amused.

God, his voice was just as she'd remembered it.

Pleasantly low and sweet but with the capacity to drop to rough undertones that smoldered like a slow-burning campfire. Smoky, even, if he wanted to try for that.

It was as though someone had taken the concept of a muggy summer night and somehow brought it to life in the form of the man sitting across from her. With his bronze skin, dark green eyes, pearly smile…and when he turned his head, his single earring glinted in the dim lighting.

The heat rolled off of him and reached for her with tempting, disembodied fingers.

"You look different without the suit," she admitted as she snagged a plastic-covered menu though she hardly needed it.

She'd been here so many times that she had her order memorized; her hands just needed to be kept busy.

Natsu's lips quirked up in a wider grin. "I could say the same," he chuckled. "Almost didn't recognize you without your bunny pajamas."

Her finger paused midway down the menu as her mind flashed back to the few nights before as she'd stood in the street with her matching bunny-printed pajamas and slippers, her hair in a sloppy bun and an unhappy blue cat in her arms. She'd looked…less than presentable.

No makeup, hair undone, clad in pajamas fit for a schoolgirl.

So _embarrassing_.

Lucy sank into her seat, her stomach curling in on itself. But, she told herself as she laughed nervously, he had to have thought she'd looked okay enough to ask to dinner. That, at least, was comforting.

"I like to think I clean up pretty nice," she laughed, resuming her perusal of the menu.

"Mm, you definitely do." Natsu's pink head bobbed in a nod—and she couldn't help but wonder if maybe it really was natural—before it fell to the side. A boyish grin lit his face, the corner of his lip curling in a way that she could only describe as mischievous and the ring in his ear glinted again. "Don't mean to brag, but I think I clean up pretty good, too," he said, straightening in his seat.

His green eyes glanced down at his own t-shirt—plain black with the maltese cross branded on the breast—and he brushed one hand over his pectoral as if flicking away lint. But she knew for a fact that there wasn't any.

Lucy swallowed. "Uh, yes, you do," she murmured, nodding.

Even though he was wearing simple clothes—t-shirt, jeans, and work boots—he drew plenty of attention. Women at other tables were staring at him, hope and jealousy glittering in their eyes, and they covered their mouths with their hands. Whether it was because of his pink hair, stunning looks, or the charming aura he exuded, Lucy didn't know.

But either way, when he cocked his head at her, she felt her stomach flop.

"How's your cat by the way? Happy?" he asked casually.

Licking her lips, she said, "Yes, Happy's fine thanks to you."

He still smelled like smoke, but it could have been a lot worse if not for her date's heroism.

Natsu grinned again. "Good to hear. What about your apartment? It's probably still being fixed up, right? Did you find a place to stay?" There was genuine interest and concern in his voice and it showed on his face as he lowered his brows and peered seriously at her.

The fact that he truly cared—and had even asked about her cat—made something warm grow in Lucy's chest.

She liked Natsu, Lucy decided.

"I'm staying with my friend Levy for now," Lucy said. "She was really understanding about the whole thing and her condo is plenty big enough for two people."

She still felt bad for invading her friend's home, despite Levy's constant protests that it was fine. So Lucy had decided to pay half the rent as compensation, for she would probably be staying with Levy for a while. There was no way the manager of her old apartment complex would let her move back in after the popcorn fiasco.

"Until I find a new place to live," Lucy sighed and tugged on her peach skirt, "I'll be staying with her."

"That might be a while…" murmured Natsu absent mindedly, as he too grabbed a menu.

"Yep."

The fireman frowned down at the shiny menu, opening the flaps and scanning them intently. His concentration was almost humorous, and Lucy found herself marveling at his furrowing brow and his squared jaw.

If it was possible, he was somehow even hotter when he was deeply concentrating.

And she was mesmerized.

* * *

 _Aha, they're on their date and Lucy is just stunned... I would be too, tbh fufufu. Be sure to leave your thoughts!_

 _And, again, check out Trial by Fire (link on my profile page)! It would mean a lot to me and my evil cohorts._

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